WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE POLAND - news journal UPDATE - (en) Poland, FA: WE WILL DRIVE THE BAILIFFS AWAY, WE WILL DEFEND ROZBRAT TOGETHER! - report from the demonstration (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

 Last Saturday, September 14, the second day of Rozbrat's 30th birthday,

we met again to protest in the street. The reason for the hastily called
protest was the information about the date of the upcoming bailiff's
auction concerning a part of the plot on which Rozbrat is located.
Business is not sleeping. ---- Why the auction of a part of the squat?
The history that led to the auction of part of Rozbrat is the history of
the pathology of the Third Polish Republic. We have been fighting
against the wild reprivatization of this area for a long time. We demand
that the city of Poznan recognizes that it is its owner. The plot was
public property for almost 50 years from the beginning of the Polish
People's Republic. A state-owned enterprise operated here. However, at
the threshold of the collapse of the previous system, the private "heir"
of the plot, in unclear circumstances, added his name to its land
register. Before the city authorities and the court had time to cross
out the incorrect entry in the register, the "heir" sold the plot for a
fraction of its value to a front company called DAREX. The quick
replacement of the private owner by selling "in good faith" has made it
difficult for the city authorities to restore public ownership of the
land to this day. The front company DAREX immediately took out a
mortgage in the bank for the real value of the plot - a multiple of the
purchase price. DAREX disappeared immediately after that. The abandoned
buildings of the liquidated factory were occupied by anarchists in 1994
and the land was handed over to the people of Poznan. This is how
Rozbrat came into being, today the oldest living occupied social centre
in Eastern Europe, one of the oldest operating squats on the continent.
After 30 years, banks are trying to collect the debt incurred by the
front company. The Poznan bailiff Guzik encourages millionaire vultures
to buy real estate with a "meat insert", the residents of the squat.
This is not the first such attempt. Thanks to the previous mass
protests, we managed to scare the vultures away.

It was with such an outline of the current situation in Rozbrat that our
protest began, which started from the squat itself. Before a group of
about 200 people went to the bailiff's office, we explained in a loud
voice how much the development business interferes on Pulaskiego Street
itself. The DudaDevelopment company is building a six-storey building
here, intended to be a luxury apartment building. It turns out that this
area, strangely enough, no longer includes the green wedge area, so a
building several times higher than the typical low-rise buildings of the
Solacz district is legal under the law. Another development project is
to be built on the site of a former printing house. Here, the investor
has already carried out the first demolitions on the plot, probably
without the appropriate permits, apparently the business can do more.
Initial information indicates another tall hotel and service building. A
complete novelty in this area, which will certainly strain the
inadequate road infrastructure. For us, such actions are reprehensible.

With slogans POZNAN FOR PEOPLE, NOT DEVELOPERS, ROZBRAT STAYS, PEOPLE
FIRST, PROFITS THEN, APARTMENTS FOR MILLIONS, NOT MILLIONAIRES, WE ARE
HERE, WE ARE ACTIVE, WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ROZBRAT, WE WILL CHASE THE
BAILIFFS, WE WILL DEFEND ROZBRAT TOGETHER! WE FIGHT TOGETHER, WE WILL
WIN TOGETHER! AND WE WILL NOT GIVE UP ROZBRAT - the demonstration went
down Pulawskiego Street, and then Poznanska Street. The original route
of the march was to lead through Roosvelta Street, but it was closed the
day before. The reason was the threat of collapse of an abandoned
tenement house, whose owners had not renovated it for years, and had
even received fines for its improper securing. However, officials
clearly did not press the supporters of the "sacred right of ownership"
and the tenement house became a real threat to nearby houses and the
tram line. It is not known how long it will take the wonderful owners to
demolish the tenement house that is in danger of collapse. It is known
that the costs of the inconvenience are borne by all the residents. This
situation was a good commentary on how wealthy speculators do not have
to fulfill their obligations to take care of the tenement houses and
buildings, because if anything, they are not in danger anyway, and the
demolished plot is still a very good investment of capital.

At the intersection of Poznanska and Kochanowskiego streets, people
associated with the Malta Estate spoke out. As a result of the actions
of the Curia and the inaction of the city authorities, they are facing
eviction on a mass scale. Their situation requires specific steps on the
part of the relevant authorities, but as usual, they consider that the
problem does not concern them. The residents of the tenement houses on
Stolarska or Piaskowa streets heard exactly the same thing when they
were threatened by the actions of the tenement cleaners. Rozbrat is
involved in supporting the residents of the estate. At this point, the
threat of the successive development of the Green Wedges was also
mentioned. The area of Wodziczki Park, the place next to which we have
been operating for 30 years, is gradually being flooded by the waters of
the river.
Bogdanka, and the area that used to be a floodplain, is now increasingly
concreted by more and more developer investments. On the one hand, the
city of Poznan boasts about the role of the Green Wedge for "airing the
city", on the other hand, it does nothing to protect it. President Jacek
Jaskowiak himself is able to temporarily switch to a bicycle for PR
purposes, but in reality he got into a conflict, because he tried
(fortunately unsuccessfully) to cut down more trees in the city on ul.
27 Grudnia.

The protest ended with the lighting of flares right in front of the
bailiff's office on ul. Kochanowskiego. Representatives of Rozbrat
clearly stated that they would not allow themselves to be thrown out of
the socio-political-cultural center they had occupied for 30 years.
Rozbrat's goal has always been to build an alternative and co-create a
city without exploitation, without evictions, without poverty.

After the official end of the demonstration, the entire group set off
along the same route through the streets of Poznan to the sounds and
rhythms of Samba Halastra supported by Samba Warszawski Rumor. When the
demonstration again found itself at the DudaDevelopment building under
construction, they spontaneously expressed their opposition to this and
similar investments using paint and smoke candles. None of the
protesters were detained. Everyone safely returned to Rozbrat, where
they continued to celebrate the second day, the 30th birthday of Rozbrat.

https://federacja-anarchistyczna.pl/2024/09/17/komornikow-pogonimy-rozbrat-razem-obronimy-relacja-z-demonstracji/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca